OMG, Cindy, what an emotional roller-coaster! Hopes & prayers that the evil insurance company will finally cave (and long-term, that our country will cease to be held hostage to these demonic, money-grubbing, M-Fers). And of course, that C will soon be feeling better.

Shir, I'm glad that you and yours are OK. Hope your sister won't have too many long-term effects from what must have been a seriously scary event. And that cooler heads will soon prevail in the whole situation.

msbelle, I'm glad Mac has made a small gesture. And hope he will continue (even if it's baby steps) to try to get his act together.

askye, your post with the good news about Jay didn't load before. That's wonderful.

Thanks, Epic. He feels pretty well, thank goodness.

When I used it, I only meant everyday people.

Thanks for clarifying (and hi, it's me with the English-as-a-second-language, so I thought I was missing something). I was really just wondering what normal means - I feel like there are so many kinds of normal, you know?

Also, lots of continued~ma for you son.

My sister's car is OK. Or at least, she could drive it after it got hit.

Hope your sister won't have too many long-term effects from what must have been a seriously scary event.

Similar things have happened to her twice already (a rocket once hit across the street from her, and another time there was some kind of a terror attack close to her - again, across the street). My sister was also a commander of observers' command center in the Field Intelligence Corps next to Gaza, so this is nothing compared to what she saw and did during her time in IDF. I suspect that the long term effects are from there. I know she's seeing a therapist on and off about it. I am still mad that IDF gave the combat soldiers some consoling to help them with their near-death experiences, but not to the non-combats who had their share of near-death experiences, just not on Gaza's sole.

And that cooler heads will soon prevail in the whole situation.

Amen, amen, amen. The older I get, I have less stomach for this. This has been going on for generations. Seriously, it's time for some reconciliation. We need to live together.

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Edited to add: on retrospect, I realize that the post above might have been a bit yicks!/heavy for read to some of you. For those, I can also tell that this morning I gifted my sister with a virtual adoption of this lovely being from Safe Haven for Donkeys (that's her birthday request). [link] I had the best time choosing a donkey for her (please note that there are upsetting stories about the history of some of these donkeys. They're all cute, though).

Timelies all!

Glad the hospital is working with you, Cindy, and C will get the medication that works for him.

Saw my first (ever) Baltimore oriole today! He took a ride on the hummingbird feeder. [link]

I was quick enough to get a couple of cellphone pictures, but he was gone before I could get the phone attached to the monocular for some better shots.

Phone cameras have become amazing. Those two pix were taken from my table, five meters away, through glass and a screen, then cropped with standard viewing software, nothing special. For scale, the hummingbird feeder has a 15 cm diameter.

That is so cool, dcp! We've been bird watching and recording in our back yard. I need to get some sort of phone camera attachment for telephoto.

Thanks. What I use is this: [link]

I don't keep it all assembled. Sometimes I like to use just the monocular by itself. Putting the phone and the adapter and the monocular together takes me about 30 seconds. There is a tripod mount under the monocular, if you need stability.

Also, lately I have been having a lot of fun with Cornell's Merlin Bird ID app.

Yes, I randomly discovered Merlin and have been having fun with it, too! We don't have a ton of variety in the backyard, but I think I have five or six on my life list. So fun!

Thanks for that link. Added to my wishlist.

Popping in to mention that today is a day of celebration for Java Cat's birthday. I hope it is a wonderful year to come.

And I am off to do family stuff today. Like install baseboards at MIL's house. Then hopefully fun stuff.

I'm at lunch in our break room and 2 co workers I don't know are talking about their daughter and granddaughter and cheerleader try outs.

The mom didn't know tryouts for something was happening because a mom from her daughter's dance class said that it was over. But the grandmother (of another girl) was saying no that her grand daughter had cheer try out after whenever that was.

And then it transitioned into a rumor about the duaghter dropped another girl....or something like that and so it's turned into a gossipy bitch fest about the various girls and moms of the dance group.

In other work news I found out a coworker I liked got fired. I don't know what happened but my beat guess is time card theft.